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17 September 2010

Fig & Cheese Tart

I didn't bother with measuring because I am lazy and also because I was worried I wouldn't have enough of certain things. I find it easier to work by eye than to follow the recipe exactly and be stressed. I realize this is a tendency I'll have to curb if I want to get serious about cooking, though!

Chopped a bag of almonds in the food processor. Put to one side and tipped in white flour, wholemeal flour, some salt and butter. Pulsed till all lumps were gone. Added 3 egg yolks, mixed with a dribble of cold water, and more butter as the dough looked too dry. Eventually I rolled it out and pressed the mixture quite thickly into the bottom of two pans. It was less like dough than crumble. Chilled in the fridge for about three hours.
Chopped 2 onions and fried lightly in butter for about ten minutes. Mixed 4 eggs with 3 pots of cream cheese, 200g of Pecorino Romano, some grated Emmentaaler, salt and pepper. Added thyme to the onions, fried for a couple minutes more, and added the onion mix to the cheese mix. Poured equal amounts on to each pastry base. Sliced five figs in half and placed them, cut side up, on the tarts. Put in the oven for an hour and ten minutes at 180 degrees C.
Sliced five onions and caramelized them (butter melted, onions fried till soft, balsamic vinegar and sugar added). For serving, the tart was divided into large pieces, each with a fig on top; spoonful of caramelized onions on the side and lettuce available.

Next time I would add more cheese (blue or goat's if possible) to the mix, as it was slightly plain to taste, possibly along with some ham. My mum appreciated the fact that it was vegetarian, however. The crust at the bottom was too thick for me. It was still very nice though! I do very much love fruit in dinner: I'd love to do it again, but I worry that the nicer alterations would be impractical given that my boyfriend doesn't eat many kinds of cheese.